The invention is generally related to computers and computer software. More specifically, the invention is generally related to the display of and navigation between hypertext documents with browser computer programs and the like.
The amount and variety of information that can be accessed through a computer continues to increase at an astounding rate. The Internet, in particular, has enabled computer users to access a wide variety of information from other computers located all over the world.
Much of the information accessible via the Internet is organized into hypertext documents, which are typically documents formatted in a language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and which are accessed via a segment of the Internet known as the World Wide Web. Hypertext documents typically include one or more embedded xe2x80x9chypertext linksxe2x80x9d that an end user can select to either jump to different documents, or to jump to different locations within the same document. Each hypertext document typically is identified by the storage location (known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)) at which the document is stored, with a hypertext link to a particular document specifying the storage location of that document so that, upon selection of the link, that document may be retrieved.
A wide variety of other information such as text, graphics, video, sound, and animation may be integrated into hypertext documents, and moreover, these documents can be organized into xe2x80x9csitesxe2x80x9d, typically maintained by a single entity, that collect multiple related documents together in a coherent fashion. Furthermore, due to the immense popularity of the World Wide Web, many private computer networks now also support hypertext documents, as do a number of existing computer operating systems and computer software applications.
A computer program, often referred to as a browser, is typically used to navigate between and through hypertext documents. With a browser, an end user can use a mouse or other pointing device to point and click on links such as highlighted text, images or other user interface components (e.g., buttons) in documents to navigate to different documents and/or to different locations within the same document.
While the point and click interface used to navigate between hypertext documents is exceptionally simple to learn and use, the wealth of available information makes it relatively easy for a user to forget the specific locations of useful documents, as well as the particular paths or trails (i.e., the sequences of locations) that the user took to find those useful documents.
As an attempt to address these difficulties, many browsers support the use of aliases (also referred to as xe2x80x9cbookmarksxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfavoritesxe2x80x9d), through which a user can maintain a list of favorite sites or documents that a user expects to revisit in the future. Retrieving a bookmarked document at a later date then only requires the user to locate the bookmark corresponding to a desired document in the list, and then select that bookmark to initiate retrieval of the document.
An important limitation of bookmark lists, however, is that the larger the lists become, the more difficult it is to locate specific bookmarks in the lists. Thus, a user often must exercise some degree of self-control to only add bookmarks for the more important documents so as to keep the size of the list at a manageable level.
One situation where a user might refrain from adding a bookmark to a list is when the user has already bookmarked another document in the same site. Often, a user will bookmark the xe2x80x9chome pagexe2x80x9d for a particular site, rather than specific documents of interest in the same site, assuming that he or she can navigate from the home page to the particular documents of interest in a few steps. However, when a user later wishes to find a particular document in a site, the user may have forgotten how to find that document from the home page for the site. The user may as a result waste time searching through a site for the particular document.
As an example, a user might frequently purchase groceries over the Internet from a particular food supplier. The food supplier has an Internet site with a home page, then with particular groceries classified and accessible through different documents that are linked to the home page. Salsas, for example, might be accessible from the home page by selecting an xe2x80x9cethnic foodsxe2x80x9d document, then a xe2x80x9cMexicanxe2x80x9d document, and finally a xe2x80x9csalsasxe2x80x9d document. Tortilla chips, on the other hand, might be accessible from the home page by selecting a xe2x80x9csnacksxe2x80x9d document, then a xe2x80x9cchipsxe2x80x9d document, and finally a xe2x80x9ctortilla chipsxe2x80x9d document.
If the user were to bookmark the page for every type of item he or she purchased from the supplier, the bookmark list could become very large and unwieldy. However, should the user merely bookmark the home page, the user may later forget where particular items are located, e.g., whether salsas or tortilla chips are classified as xe2x80x9cethnic foodsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csnacksxe2x80x9d in the site. Consequently, the user would then be required to hunt around the site to find the particular items, thereby wasting time and decreasing productivity.
Thus, with conventional browsers, a significant conflict exists between the goal of storing as many bookmarks as possible in a bookmark list to maximize the ability to revisit documents, and the goal of maintaining the list as compact as possible to facilitate the lookup of individual bookmarks in the list. A significant need therefore exists for a manner of increasing the ability to locate documents without needlessly cluttering up a bookmark list or the like.
The invention addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art by providing an apparatus, program product, and method that utilize a document trail to facilitate the location of other documents reachable from a given hypertext document. A document trail consistent with the invention includes a plurality of identifiers that respectively identify a plurality of interlinked hypertext documents and permit a user to navigate from an origination hypertext document to a destination hypertext document simply by following the xe2x80x9ctrailxe2x80x9d of interlinked hypertext documents to the destination hypertext document.
A document trail may be created in a number of manners consistent with the invention. For example, a document trail from an origination hypertext document to a destination hypertext document may be created in response to receiving user input to create the document trail by navigating from the origination hypertext document to the destination hypertext document in response to user input; and, after receiving user input to create the document trail, storing in the document trail an identifier for the destination hypertext document and any intermediate hypertext document visited when navigating from the origination hypertext document to the destination hypertext document.
Navigation from the origination hypertext document to the destination hypertext document may occur after a user has indicated a desire to create the document trail, whereby storing the identifiers for the document trail may occur principally through a process of recording the steps taken to reach a desired destination, and automatically appending each new step to the trail. In the alternative, navigation from the origination hypertext document to the destination hypertext document may also occur prior to indicating a desire to create the document trail, whereby storing the identifiers for the document trail may occur through xe2x80x9cbacktrackingxe2x80x9d from the destination hypertext document to the origination hypertext document to retrace the steps taken to reach the desired destination.
Once created, a document trail may be identified to a user in a number of manners consistent with the invention. Among other manners that will become apparent below, a document trail may be displayed to a user by using a unique display representation for a hypertext link definition that defines a link between two documents in a document trail. Thus, when multiple hypertext links are present in a given hypertext document, a user can readily determine which link in the document should be selected in order to follow the desired document trail.
Therefore, consistent with another aspect of the invention, a display representation of at least a portion of a first hypertext document is displayed on a computer display, with the portion of the first hypertext document including a hypertext link definition that references a second hypertext document. In addition, it is determined whether the second hypertext document is one of a plurality of interlinked hypertext documents in a document trail, and based upon whether the second hypertext document is one of the plurality of interlinked hypertext documents in the document trail, one of first and second display representations of the hypertext link definition is displayed.
These and other advantages and features, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and of the advantages and objectives attained through its use, reference should be made to the Drawings, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is described exemplary embodiments of the invention.